Posts

Steven Croft

Digital Discipleship

Bishop Steven gave the presidential address to Diocesan Synod on Saturday 14 June at Holy Trinity, Hazlemere.

“And Jesus said to them, Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old”

Matthew 13.52

A month ago on 14 May we welcomed around 100 young people into our conference of 280 clergy in Swanwick. The young people aged 15-17 came from four secondary schools across our diocese: Ranelagh, the Oxford Academy, Waddesdon and Churchmead. We wanted to listen together to their hopes and fears. I’m very grateful to the young people themselves and those who wrestled with the logistical challenges to enable them to be with us.

Students from the four schools helped to lead our Eucharist that day. The young people were inspiring. Then in the afternoon we spent ninety minutes in groups of around eight young people and around 15-20 clergy mainly listening to the hopes and fears of these amazing young people for their lives and for the church. Some of the young people were Christian; some were of other faiths; some were of no faith. The whole experience was immensely energising and enriching for the conference.

But my biggest takeaway and my starting point this morning was what came first on the list for the young people in terms of concerns for the future. It wasn’t the economy or the climate or war. For person after person as we went around the groups we heard the words artificial intelligence; technology; social media; AI.

Wrestling for a future

To expand a little: AI will do the jobs we are training to do. We don’t want our lives to be shaped by technology companies. What’s the point of school if the teacher cribs from ChatGPT? How do we know what is true? We feel helpless against deepfakes.

What do we have to say to those young people and millions like them as they wrestle with how to live their lives in a world dominated by technology and social media? What wisdom old and new can we bring out of the treasure house llike good scribes in schools and local churches? What should shape our approach to new technology as the Church?

The young people are mirroring the concerns in the rest of society. We might almost say Black Mirroring. Nine years ago when I began to explore the world of AI, that world felt like science fiction. Whenever I spoke on the subject I had to spend most of the time explaining what artificial intelligence is. As the technology has expanded, so has public awareness. According to a government survey published in December of last year, awareness of AI is now almost universal. But public trust in AI by many measures is falling.

Word cloud on terms to do with AI - the words are largely negative, with robot, scary and worried as the largest.

In this word cloud found in the same report the predominant words used are all negative: scary, worried; robot; unsure, echoing the insights and fears of our young people.

A rapidly rising trend

The greater public awareness of AI is of course driven by a combination of greater investment, some technological advances, a certain amount of hype and greater deployment of AI across many professions and in familiar software and search engines. We all encounter AI tools each time we use a search engine or a hold a meeting over Zoom. Some of us will be learning to use large language models like ChatGPT in work or study.

Over the course of 2025 we will become increasingly aware of AI Agents embedded in the software tools we use which are able to respond to simple instructions and carry out complex tasks.

A few weeks ago, I chaired a Westminster public policy forum looking at tackling disinformation and deepfakes in the United Kingdom. The different sessions explored the prevalence of deepfakes; sexually explicit deepfake images and synthetic sexual content, which is a rapidly rising trend; disinformation threats to the UK posed by hostile actors as well as strategies to combat all of this.

And there are news stories most days. According to a single edition of the Times on Wednesday: Westminster must prepare for the era of superintelligence (a column claiming the Turing test has now been passed). M&S take online orders again after attack (referencing the recent cyber attack). Period tracker app puts women’s safety at risk (a story about the harvesting of personal data which can be sold at scale). On the same day the BBC South featured the new Reading FC manager talking about the impact of AI on football. All of this and I’ve not yet mentioned social media, smartphones and mental health.

The Church at this moment

So how are we to seek to be the Church in this moment? What should we do and how should we respond and what wisdom old and new can we mine from our deep, deep treasure chambers of scripture and the tradition and the vast resources of good counsel held by our church members? What can we say to the young people who came to Swanwick; to the 60,000 young people who are part our schools across the diocese; to the tens of thousands of Christians who will be sharing in worship in our churches and chaplaincies this week? There are I think three messages I want to share with the church as we seek to live well with this new technology and at the heart of our response.

The first is to turn towards the human and the personal: to be rooted in the contemplative. The second is to develop wisdom and patterns for digital discipleship which are grounded in compassion for our selves and for others. The third is to find and use our voice to shape society: to engage; to be courageous. Allow me to explore each of these in turn.

Contemplative

The first turn then, the overarching priority in a world dominated by technology is for the Church of Jesus Christ to turn always towards the human, towards the personal, towards the relational, to be a face to face church.

Most questions around technology and artificial intelligence sooner or later raise questions about what it means to be human: about agency and imperfection and identity and mortality; about flourishing and relationships and love. As our world becomes more and more shaped by technology, it is a temptation for the church to be shaped more and more by technology in our common life, to be seduced by the spirit of the age.

A new humanity

But remember the doctrines at the core of our Christian faith and identity. We dare to believe that humankind is not a random accident or a step on a journey of evolution which will end with a disembodied universal consciousness. We dare to believe that humankind, men and women are made in the very image of God. That despite and because of our frailty and flaws each person is unique; deserving of dignity and respect; infinitely precious and loved and worthy of eternity and understanding and significance. We have been reflecting as the Church on what it means to be human in the Judaeo Christian tradition for over three thousand years in our stories and art and our liturgy. We have a major contribution to make.

We further dare to believe that Almighty God, the maker of heaven and earth, of the entire universe, became a human person in Jesus Christ and modelled for us what it means to love and to live well. Jesus’ life was shaped not by aggrandisement nor power,  nor seeking wealth but sacrifice. Jesus laid down his life for us on the cross. God raised him from the dead. Jesus gave to us the precious gift of the Holy Spirit to infuse our fallen humanity with Christ’s spirit and divinity and to prepare us for an eternal destiny. And Jesus calls together a new humanity spanning every nation across the earth called to live as Jesus lives as a sign and foretaste of God’s kingdom.

In this moment the Church needs to become deeply confident again in in this story; in our understanding of what it means to be human and what makes for human flourishing: love; relationship; forgiveness; service; purposeful work; good rhythms of life; welcoming intergenerational communities; inspiring worship.

How do we turn towards the human?

This means I think that all local churches and church schools will need to be circumspect and careful about the embracing of technology. In every decision this should be the question: how do we turn towards the human; to the relational; to the small; to the local. In this particular age the features of our church life which we can think of as weaknesses are actually turned into strengths: the small and the local and the relational and the countercultural are most likely to thrive in a decade when those around us are seeking truth and authenticity and community and love. We need to be a more confident, contemplative Church in the face of new technology; a more still and silent Church in the clamour of addictive technologies; a more authentic church in a climate of digital fakery.

Compassionate

The second turn is for the Church of Jesus Christ is to develop wisdom and patterns for digital discipleship which are grounded in compassion for others and for ourselves. There is a new dimension for all of our lives: the digital. We need to apply both new and ancient wisdom to our living in this new dimension for we are to be disciples in the whole of our living and the whole of ourselves: online and offline. It was apparent to me long before I came off all social media that many, many Christians express themselves online in ways they would not dream of speaking in person.

Ecological discipleship

Pope Francis coined the term ecological discipleship in his great encyclical Laudato Si’ on the environment: the whole way we live in such a way as to restore and repair the earth. In a different way we need to learn ourselves how to live well and wisely and compassionately  with technology; with the continual flows of information; with the ways in which we communicate; with the 24/7 society.

Digital discipleship will include learning and teaching good digital hygene and care of our data. It will include honesty and accountability about where our attention roams online. It will include recognising patterns of temptation and addiction in the private online spaces. It will mean guarding our integrity. It may mean recognising new temptations such as gambling or pornography or rekindling old relationships. Digital discipleship might mean developing patterns of digital sabbaths; weaning ourselves away from social media. Digital discipleship will mean reflecting carefully on the access we enable for our children and young people to screens and devices.

Communities of resistance

Is it possible for local churches to be become communities of resistance and reflection in relation to new technology: places where parents learn how to be good parents in the digital age; where young people learn the risks for the soul of hook ups and abusive sex replacing relationships; where those in mid life make real friendships in the real world as the antidote to isolation; where the shallow dopamine rewards of likes on Instagram are replaced by the inspiration of a worship service; where the listlessness and misery created by doom-scrolling can be transformed by hope, by self discipline and by joy.

Can churches be places where people learn the deep wisdom of being able to recognise truth and authenticity and reality in a world dominated by deep fakes and kindness and gentleness and mercy replace the harsh judgements of our cancel culture? Will we have the vision to apply the lessons in our sermons to the online world as well as the offline world? To invite our parishes and our schools into the profound adventure which is authentic Christian discipleship?

Courageous

And the third turn for the Church is to find and use our voice to shape society; to engage; to be courageous.

There is no doubt that AI and technology are shaping our society in the present and will be a shaping force in the future. There will be benefits in medicine; in research; in automation; perhaps in productivity. But there will be many areas where protest and guidance and counter movements are needed to resist the entire shaping of society in the interests of the big technology companies.

Parliament has seen a significant battle this week between on the one hand the creative industries and on the other the interests of Big Tech in the attempts to amend the new Data Use and Access Bill to introduce greater transparency in the training of AI models on others original work. That is just once instance of where the battle lines are being drawn.

Vigilance on AI

The final document issued by Pope Francis in January Antiqua et Nova takes Matthew 13.52 as a guiding text and lists no less than ten areas where Church and Society will need to be vigilant about the effects and benefits of AI:

  1. Society
  2. Human relationships
  3. The economy and labour
  4. Healthcare
  5. Education
  6. Misinformation, deepfakes and abuse
  7. Privacy and surveillance
  8. The protection of our common home
  9. Warfare
  10. Our relationship with God

The bigger picture

Each of these areas needs investment, reflection, a critique and resistance. The last nine years have taught me that there are very few voices in society able to step back and look at the larger picture of what technology is doing to society. The Churches and the faith communities can and should be one of those voices engaged in this reflection and engaged in campaigning at every level. Over the past year we have seen the power of parental engagement in campaigns on online safety, on children’s mental health and on banning mobile phones from the classroom. As churches we need to be speaking out and also nurturing this careful critique, reflection and resistance.

To return to again to the young people who came to the clergy conference. I don’t think they were wrong to be anxious about the impact of technology on their lives. The Church needs to be watchful and careful in the coming years. I hope these three key turns will provide a framework and a reference point for three turns we need to make.

The first is to turn towards the human and the personal: to be rooted in the contemplative. The second is to develop wisdom and patterns for digital discipleship which are grounded in compassion for our selves and for others. The third is to find and fuse our voice to shape society: to engage; to be courageous.

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Steven Croft

Existential risk in this and future decades

Following the State Opening of Parliament on Tuesday 7 November, the House of Lords is debating the content of the King’s Speech over five days. The King’s Speech is written by the government. It sets out the government’s legislative agenda for the new parliamentary session. On Monday 13 November the Bishop of Oxford

It is a privilege as ever to take part in the debate on this most gracious speech. I thank the Minister for his clear introduction and also pay tribute to Lord Gascoigne and the Bishop of Norwich for their gracious and eloquent maiden speeches. It is particularly good to welcome the Lord Bishop of Norwich to this House with, as he has demonstrated, his considerable expertise on the environment and climate change.

My Lords I warmly welcome the Prime Minister’s ambition to build a better future for our children and grandchildren and deliver the change the country needs. But it seems to me, as to many, that so great are the challenges we face, that this and any government will need deeper humility combined with greater practical wisdom to lead the nation forward. I focus my remarks on my own two areas of focus in this House: the climate and artificial intelligence – both areas of existential risk in this and future decades.

On climate: I welcome the government’s restated determination to lead action on tackling climate change and diversity loss. As a member of your Lordships Select Committee on the Environment and Climate Change I do recognise the complexity of a fair transition for the whole of our economy to net zero. But I do not yet see this determination translated into effective leadership of granular policy, whether that is in the transition to electric vehicles or decarbonising home heating or encouraging behaviour change.

The tone of the speech is that the world is more or less succeeding in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The opposite is of course the case. The years when we can avert future disasters are slipping away as Lord Stern has argued. I would say with respect to the noble Lord Lilley that much of the world is currently experiencing catastrophic effects of climate change as is well documented by the United Nations and others. We need greater leadership and co-ordination across every government department and an increased sense of urgency in this legislative programme.

And in particular I want to highlight the risks and dangers of politicising the climate change agenda which has been a feature of recent government announcements. Reaching net zero fairly demands the patient building of cross party and cross societal consensus which have been damaged by the recent changes on electric vehicle targets and by the decision to license yet more future oil and gas fields which are unlikely to come into production in time to support the essential and urgent transition we need.

Turning to Artificial Intelligence. I do want to congratulation the Prime Minister and the government on the recent AI Summit and all that has emerged from the discussions there. The Summit served to raise profile of the questions raised by AI and the ways in which the benefits of new technology can be realised and the mitigation of its potential harms. I welcome the promise of new legal frameworks for self driving vehicles, new competition rules for digital markets and the encouragement of innovation in machine learning.

However I do want to encourage the government to invest more deeply in dialogue with civil society about the impact of these new technologies. The recent summit claimed to involve civil society, but I have seen no evidence of this key third voice in the room. The government has entered into a rich dialogue between government and tech companies, which is welcome, but this dialogue must be informed by trade unions, academia, community groups and faith communities to build trust and confidence moving forward about the kind of society we are building.

So may I ask the minister in her response to indicate the ways in which the government will strengthen this third arm of the conversation in the coming months and years.

/by
Steven Croft

Rooted in God the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit

Spirit of God awakens a new life, both dead and alive, detail of stained glass window by Sieger Koder in church of Saint John in Piflas, Germany

Some of us might have been surprised to see Artificial Intelligence so high on the agenda for the Prime Minister’s meeting with the President Biden this week. The President pledged to support Britain’s convening of a major global conference on AI regulation later this year.

The calling of the conference is part of the government’s response to a series of concerns about AI voiced by leading figures in the tech industry in recent months warning of the need to regulate both research and deployment of AI. Many of you will know that I have been working in this area now for a number of years in my work in the House of Lords and for three years as part of the government’s Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation. This seems a good moment to bring the Synod and the Diocese up to date on the potential and concerns around AI and also with developments in the Online Safety Bill.

Artificial Intelligence is developing apace and is affecting every part of our lives. Global investment is increasing. New products are rolled out with bewildering speed. Microsoft launched Chat GPT on 30th November last year. By January it had become the fastest growing consumer software application in history gaining over 100 million users worldwide. Chat GPT is currently leading the field among new AI’s available to the public based on Large Language Models: the manipulation not just of data but of language in a way which seems human and intelligent. Chat GPT is already transforming search, the way children do their homework and possibly the way clergy prepare sermons. Version 4 was launched in March; an App came out in May. Microsoft will incorporate a version into Office later this year.

The software has the potential to reshape the legal profession, call centres and knowledge based enterprises. Other developments in AI are transforming medicine particularly in the rapid diagnosis of cancers or more accurate scanning and in the development of remote medicine.

There is huge potential here but also significant jeopardy. Two of the three godfathers of AI, Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Benigio have sounded warnings about research and deployment running much faster than regulation and public debate. In May a coalition of industry experts including the head of the company which developed Chat GPT and of Google Deep Mind issued a serious warning that Artificial Intelligence could lead to the extinction of humanity. They argue that:

“Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war”.

What are the risks? They include the weaponization of AI by bad actors; the generation of misinformation to destabilise society, including in elections; the concentration of power in fewer and fewer hands enabling regimes to enforce narrow values through pervasive surveillance and oppressive censorship”; and enfeeblement, where humans become dependent on AI.

These warnings are not uncontested and we are currently seeing a pushback against some of these dire warnings. We are probably decades away from an autonomous general artificial intelligence. These Terminator like scenarios can be used to distract attention from the more immediate but real dangers – such as the rapid deployment of facial recognition technology in security and policing without proper governance. But more not less public debate is needed which is mindful both of the immense good this technology can enable and the severe harm.

What then has this to do with the Church and with Christians? We clearly need to engage in an informed way as this technology develops for the sake of present and future generations. As Christians we have a distinctive understanding of human dignity and person hood and what it means to be human. Our identity is rooted in the faith that humankind is made in the image of God, to quote Genesis 1. We place our faith and trust in our Father in heaven who made us and who loves us. We are able to work in partnership with technology and machines of all kinds. But not uncritically.

If technology undermines personal safety or dignity, through stripping away capacity for creativity and meaningful work, then we should be concerned. If technology undermines the democratic process or public truth, we should sound a warning. If the development of autonomous weapons gives life and death decisions to a machine we should raise our voices in every way possible.

Second, our understanding of what it means to be human is rooted in the incarnation. We believe that Almighty God, maker of heaven and earth, became a human person in a particular time and place to redeem all of humanity in every time and place. There is no higher statement of value and worth for humankind that the truth that God became a person in Jesus and a person who embodies the distinctive Christian character of the beatitudes: contemplation in a relationship with God, compassion in love for the world and courage in a desire for justice and for peace. We are called to embody those values in the life of the Body of Christ, the Church.

This means again that the Church will need to be both critical and cautious in response to new technologies. Our humanity is not negotiable. We need to say clearly that the future of humankind is not unlimited enhancement and mechanisation and automation and delegation. We will want to see robust public debate and good governance which is alert to dangers. We will want the commonly owned values of our society, based on our Christian inheritance, to be lived out online as well as offline. We will want to ensure a strong role for government in regulation. If this is in the hands of major global tech companies then power and wealth and influence will be concentrated in an ever smaller group of unaccountable technocrats. We will want to see strong human- AI partnerships as a foundational principle in medicine, in law enforcement, in automation of work, in education.

And third our understanding of our humanity is formed by our faith and trust in the Holy Spirit, who gives life to the people of God. The Spirit of God comes to dwell within the heart and life of the believer, to give life in all its fulness, to form us into the likeness of Christ and to empower us to change God’s world for the better.

The Spirit leads us into all truth, we believe. One of the concerns to be alert to in this present phase of AI development is truth and authenticity. The new tools make the creation and dissemination of authentic deep fakes much easier. How do we know on the night before an election that the picture of the politician saying or doing something terrible is true or not? If Chat GPT or Google tells us that something is true, how do we test that in the real world if the internet is our only source of information? The preservation of truth has to be one of the highest priorities in a democracy and for the Church.

One of the other marks of the Spirit’s life is creativity. Remember in Exodus how the Spirit is given to skilled workers in fabrics and metals and wood in the building of tabernacle; remember how the Spirit inspires architects and builders and musicians and the arts.

The new generation of AI has a massive capacity for creativity. For the very first time we can all access a tool which will write a greetings card in the style of a Shakespeare sonnet or produce a new play or opera. So far the quality is not high – but it will get better.

My colleague Simon Cross, who is funded by the Templeton Foundation and works with me on these issues, has recently summed up the shift in the new generation of AI tools in this way:

The first iteration of digitalisation extracted data about us. In the first digital world, facts like our age, ethnicity, location and viewing habits could be extracted – or inferred with ever increasing granularity – and then used to tailor our attention: surveillance to sell. But the onus was on our information and opinions, not our ideas. There have been a host of downstream harms and unintended consequences that we are still discovering. But now, even before that first clean up is complete, Generative AI is coming for our creativity. Everything, but everything we write, or say, or sing, or paint, or draw, or sculpt, or… everything: all of it, is – or soon might be – hoovered up inside a ‘foundation model’, because our creativity is the coal that powers this new generative AI furnace.

What will the consequence be for our humanity and identity if AI takes the major share of human creativity: the arts as well as the sciences. The answer is that we become less than human, less than we can be. The spark of the divine image begins to be extinguished. We need to be alert; we need our prophets; we need to preserve truth and creativity and dignity for future generations.

Finally, as Simon argues there, the first clean up is not yet complete. Indeed it has hardly started. The Online Safety Bill currently in Committee Stage in the House of Lords is a key piece of legislation. It is not yet strong enough and over the last three months I’ve been working with a cross party group of peers, charities and agencies, and connecting with MPs, to seek to strengthen the Bill, with Simon’s support and that of other Lords Spiritual.

I am increasingly convinced that the world has created a deeply toxic environment for the mental health of children and adults through social media. We will look back on the last two decades and the lack of regulation in future years with disbelief. The range of harms affects every section of society but children and the vulnerable most of all.

The Letter of James is absolutely clear about the power of the tongue and of words to do harm.

“How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire. And a tongue is a fire….a restless evil…. full of deadly poison.”

This fire, this evil, this deadly poison is magnified a hundred fold by social media and online engagement and has a massive effect on peoples real lives in a range of ways. The multiplication happens through 24 hour access even in our most private spaces; through the clever fostering of addiction; through algorithms which drive the most controversial content to our feeds and now increasingly through AI generated material.

I have been corresponding in recent weeks with Amanda and Stuart Stephens well known to some members of this Synod whose 13 year old son Olly was tragically murdered in Reading in 2021 by other children of a similar age. Social media played a massive part in his murder especially through incitement to knife crime. Amanda and Stuart have joined other bereaved parents in campaigning for a stronger bill.

The harms caused to children by pornography have been a feature of several of amendments and especially for strong age assurance and verification protection.

Adults too are not immune to harm from social media as many here will know. The Bill needs to be further strengthened as at attempt to regulate the damage already done. We need to learn from the damage caused by the last 20 years of social media to better regulate for the next generation. The government has not yet agreed to the major changes which are still needed though there is still time to do this.

There may yet come a moment when it will be helpful for members of this Synod to write to their MP’s on this matter.

There is much that can be done in local churches and schools to help and support parents and children in responsible approaches to the internet. We will be giving consideration later in this Synod to the magnificent work of our Board of Education and our engagement with children and young people now and into the future. I hope this address sets a context both in outlining some of the challenges the next generations will face, the need to monitor and limit access to social media and the resources of Christian faith to establish and build a vital core of Christian identity rooted in God the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

 

+Steven
10 June 2023

Photo: Spirit of God awakens a new life, both dead and alive, detail of stained glass window by Sieger Koder in church of Saint John in Piflas, Germany (c) Shutterstock

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Steven Croft

Science and Faith and the Lambeth Conference

Archbishop Justin stands on a stage infront of large audience, a large photo of an oil refinery is shown on a screen.

Bishop Steven shares an overview of the key thread of Science and Faith at the Lambeth Conference held in Canterbury from 26th July to 7th August.

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Steven Croft

AI in the UK: No room for complacency

The Bishop of Oxford spoke in the debate on the Scrutiny Committee Report in the House of Lords on 25 Mary 2022.

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Steven Croft

Let’s make social media kinder

Fifteen years ago, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube didn’t exist. Today, 67% of people in the UK are active users of at least one of them, and we now spend almost two hours each day on social media. Yet society is increasingly fearful of the risks of fake news and harmful content and distrustful of the very platforms that consume so much of our time.

Our lives are irreversibly online, lived with ever decreasing levels of privacy and hyperstimulated to a relentless pace. Few of us have stopped to properly consider what it means to live well in this age, but as Christians, we have an essential part to play in the shape of online society.

This week the national Church launched a Digital Charter, which includes guidelines and a pledge that anyone can add their name to as part of a personal commitment to making social media a more positive place. I’ve signed up to the Charter, and I hope you will too.

As a Diocese, we’ve been spending time exploring what it means to be a more Christ-like Church for the sake of God’s world. It’s a journey that started three years ago as we studied the Beatitudes together. Recently I’ve begun to ponder what those eight beautiful qualities might mean for social media and our online lives.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
I will remember that my identity comes from being made and loved by God, not from my online profile.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted This world is full of grief and suffering.
I will tread softly and post with gentleness and compassion.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
I will not boast or brag online, nor will I pull others down.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
There are many wrongs to be righted. I will not be afraid to name them and look for justice in the world.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
I will not judge others but be generous online. I will be conscious of my own failings.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
I will be truthful and honest, and I will not pretend to be what I am not.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God
I will seek to reconcile those of different views with imagination and good humour.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
I will not add to the store of hate in the world, but I will try to be courageous in standing up for what is right and true.

You can download a card (colour version | black and white version) to keep near your phone and tablet and share this social media graphic online.

Advances in technology have brought sharp ethical dilemmas and deeper questions of human identity. There are important debates to be had about the exploitation of our personal data, along with the threats (and benefits) of AI. These will take time and will require legislation, but we can also do something right now: let us each play our part in making social media kinder.

 

+Steven
June 2019

Further reading:

#CofECharter

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Steven Croft

Move fast and mend things

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Steven Croft

How to be human

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Steven Croft

The only way is Ethics

Developing Artificial Intelligence in the UK

 

For the past year, I’ve been a member of the House of Lord’s Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence. The Committee of 13 members received 223 pieces of written evidence and took oral sessions from 57 witnesses over 22 sessions between October and December. It has been a fascinating process.

The Committee’s report is published today. It’s called AI in the UK: ready, willing and able? You can find it on the Committee website.

When I first started to engage with questions of Artificial Intelligence, I thought the real dangers to humankind were a generation away and the stuff of science fiction. The books and talks that kept me awake at night were about general AI: conscious machines (probably more than a generation away if not more).

The more I heard, the more the evidence that kept me awake at night was in the present not the future. Artificial Intelligence is a present reality not a future possibility. AI is used, and will be used, in all kinds of everyday ways. Consider this vignette from the opening pages of the report…

You wake up, refreshed, as your phone alarm goes off at 7:06am, having analysed your previous night’s sleep to work out the best point to interrupt your sleep cycle. You ask your voice assistant for an overview of the news, and it reads out a curated selection based on your interests. Your local MP is defending herself—a video has emerged which seems to show her privately attacking her party leader. The MP claims her face has been copied into the footage, and experts argue over the authenticity of the footage. As you leave, your daughter is practising for an upcoming exam with the help of an AI education app on her smartphone, which provides her with personalised content based on her strengths and weaknesses in previous lessons…

There is immense potential for good in AI: labour saving routine jobs can be delegated; we can be better connected; there is a remedy for stagnant productivity in the economy which will be a real benefit; there will be significant advances in medicine, especially in diagnosis and detection. In time, the roads may be safer and transport more efficient.

There are also significant risks. Our data in the wrong hands mean that political debate and opinion can be manipulated in very subtle ways. Important decisions about our lives might be made with little human involvement. Inequality may widen further. Our mental health might be eroded because of the big questions raised about AI.

This is a critical moment. Humankind has the power now to shape Artificial Intelligence as it develops. To do that we need a strong ethical base: a sense of what is right and what is harmful in AI.

I’m delighted that the Prime Minister has committed the United Kingdom to give an ethical lead in this area. Theresa May said in a recent speech in Davos in January:

“We want our new world leading centre for Data Ethics and Innovation to work closely with international partners to build a common understanding of how to ensure the safe, ethical and innovative development of artificial intelligence”

That new ethical framework will not come from the Big Tech companies and Silicon Valley which seek the minimum regulation and maximum freedom. Nor will it come from China, the other major global investor in AI, which takes a very different view of how personal data should be handled. It is most likely to come from Europe, with its strong foundation in Christian values and the rights of the individual and most of all, at present, from the United Kingdom, which is also a global player in the development of technology.

The underlying theme of the Select Committee’s recommendations is that ethics must be put at the centre of the development and use of AI. We believe that Britain has a vital role in leading the international community in shaping Artificial Intelligence for the common good rather than passively accepting its consequences.

The Government has already announced the creation of a new Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation to lead in this area. The Select Committee’s proposals will support the Centre’s work.

Towards the end of our enquiry, the Committee shaped five principles which we offer as a starting point for the Centre’s work. They emerged from very careful listening to those who came to meet us from industry and universities and regulators. Almost everyone we met was concerned about ethics and the need for an ethical vision to guide the development of these very powerful tools which will shape society in the next generation.

These are our five core principles (or AI Code) with a short commentary on each:

Artificial intelligence should be developed for the common good and benefit of humanity

Why is this important? AI is about more than making tasks easer or commercial advantage or one group exploiting another. AI is a powerful technology which can shape our understanding of work and income and our health. It’s too important to be left to multinational companies operating on behalf of their shareholders or to a tiny group of innovators. We need a big, wide public debate. It’s also vital that as a society we encourage the best minds towards using AI to solve the most critical problems facing the planet. It would be a tragedy if the main fruits of AI were simply better computer generated graphics or quicker ways to order takeaway pizza.

Artificial Intelligence should operate on principles of intelligibility and fairness

This is absolutely vital. There is a striking tendency in AI at the moment to anthropomorphise: to make machines seem human. This looks harmless at first until you begin to consider the consequences. Suppose in a few years time you are unable to tell whether that call from the bank is from an AI or a person? Suppose you apply for a job and the decisions about your application are all taken by a computer?

Suppose that computer is using a faulty data set, biased against you but you never get to know that? There are already a number of chatbots available offering cognitive behavioural therapy. Some of them charge money. Suppose they get better and better and imitating humans. What is to prevent vulnerable people being exploited? Regulation and monitoring is needed not for the first generation of developers (who are mainly very ethical) but for the generation after that.

Artificial intelligence should not be used to diminish the data rights or privacy of individuals, families or communities.

The Cambridge Analytica and Facebook scandals erupted the week after the Select Committee agreed its final report. They underline the need for this principle. Data is the oil of the AI revolution. It is vital to fuel machine learning and wide application of AI. But data also contains the essence of identity and personality. It is fundamental that our data is safeguarded and not exploited.

All citizens have the right to be educated to enable them to flourish mentally, emotionally and economically alongside artificial intelligence.

AI is a disruptive technology. Some jobs will diminish or disappear. New jobs will emerge—but they will be different and probably not there in the same numbers as the jobs we lose. Inequality will increase unless we take positive steps to counter this. The economic predictions are uncertain. It is however absolutely clear that the only way to counter this disruption is education and lifelong learning. That education is not only about reskilling the workforce. There is a universal need for everyone to learn how to flourish in a new digital world. Providing that education is the responsibility of government.

The autonomous power to hurt, destroy or deceive human beings should never be vested in artificial intelligence.

Autonomous weapons are a present reality and a future prospect. This will change warfare for ever. The UK’s position on them is, at best, ambiguous: we use definitions which are out of step with the rest of the world. The Select Committee calls on the government for much greater clarity here and again, for a wider public debate. Deception is already a feature of AI in cyberwarfare and covert attempts to change perceptions of truth and public opinion. Unless we guard values of public truth and courtesy and freedom then our society is vulnerable.

Artificial Intelligence is here to stay. It has the capacity to shape our lives in many different ways. This is the moment to ensure that humankind shapes AI to serve the common good and all humanity rather than allowing AI driven by commercial or other interests to shape our future and our national life.

 

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Steven Croft

Radio 4 Thought for the Day

Bishop Steven gave his Thought for the Day on Saturday 30th December 2017 during a programme edited by Artificial Intelligence (AI).

“How are you feeling?”
“What’s your energy like today?”

Imagine being asked the same questions every day not by a person but by a machine.

My eye was drawn earlier this year to the launch of the Woebot—a charming robot friend, able to listen 24-7 through your phone or computer.

The Woebot (that’s WOE) is a Fully Automated Conversational Agent, a chatbot therapist powered by artificial intelligence and the principles of cognitive behavioural therapy. It aims to help young adults cope better with life.

That has to be a good thing, although it says as much about our culture as it does about AI.
As Crocodile Dundee might have said, “Haven’t you got any mates?” The truth is, we don’t, or not enough.

AI is beginning to be everywhere. It helps us do things we couldn’t do before. As we’ve been hearing this morning, AI raises many deep questions about the future of work, proper boundaries, weaponisation, the right use of data, and teaching children and adults to look after themselves in a digital world. Most lead back to the same core issue. What does it mean to be human? This is a question that has never been more important.

For a Christian, the foundation of being human is that we are part of God’s creation but with this wonderful power to create.

Psalm 139 evokes wonder and mystery:

“For it was you, o God, who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made”.

Every advance in AI shows me what a profound and wonderful thing it is to be alive—to be human.

AI can do really interesting things. But, as yet Artificial Intelligence isn’t a patch on the real thing: human intelligence and human learning and human identity. We have a mind and memories, conscience and consciousness, the capacity to reason, to love and to weep, to hold a child or the hand of an old person, to breathe deep in the early morning, or to talk with God in the cool of the evening.

In this Christmas season especially, I remember that being human is God’s special subject. Humanity is the pinnacle of creation, flawed and imperfect though we are. Christians believe that God’s reason and ingenuity and love took flesh and God was born a child and came to bring hope and purpose and healing to the earth.

Artificial Intelligence is amazing, though we need to use it well and be alert to its dangers. Human consciousness is even more remarkable, for me: a God-given mystery.

We are more than the sum of our parts. The moment we begin to lose sight of the fact that humankind is truly unique is the moment we fail to recognise the amazing gift life in all its glory.

With that in mind…

How are you feeling today?

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